Ad firm: Christie wasn't 1st choice

The firm behind a Jersey Shore tourism ad campaign pushed back Monday against suggestions that it was chosen for the job because it agreed to feature Gov. Chris Christie in the spots, saying its bid was accepted before the Republican was slated to star in the campaign. In fact, an official with the firm says, when the ad team was brainstorming iconic Garden Staters, Christie didn’t top the list — Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi did.

Now, the firm is fighting back amid news that the Department of Housing and Urban Development is examining that marketing campaign, which featured Christie and his family during an election year.

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The inquiry to the department’s inspector general was requested by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who charged in an August letter that he is “concerned that the winning bid proposed including Governor Chris Christie in the advertisements, while the lower cost proposal that was not selected did not.” His office announced on Monday that a probe would proceed.

“Given widely inaccurate reporting on Stronger than the Storm, we welcome the Inspector General’s report,” the firm shot back in a statement. “It will show that MWW’s proposal included no mention or suggestion of using the governor in the paid advertising campaign. The decision to include the governor was arrived at after the contract was awarded, based on timing, availability, and federal expenditure rules.”

Springsteen and Bon Jovi were on tour and the deadline was tight, among other reasons, so the public relations firm turned to the Republican governor after winning the bid, according to Josh Zeitz, a senior vice president at MWW.

And Christie was not included in a list of New Jersey “icons” featured in the 205-page ad proposal from MWW, according to a copy reviewed by POLITICO.

“Of course, icons are people as well as places,” the proposal notes. “New Jersey gave the world Springsteen and Bon Jovi. Frankie [Valli] and Queen Latifah. Joe Budden and Redman. James Gandolfini, Anne Hathaway, Joe Pesci, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison. Eli Manning and Shaquille O’Neal. These other Jersey icons are the best ambassadors for the brand. Any successful campaign should lean on their shared affinity for the shore.”

Christie is not listed in any of the three ad concepts put forth, according to that copy of the initial proposal. Still, news reports show that MWW indicated early on to officials that the governor could have a big role.

“From the creative side, we had to decide who is the strongest voice communicating that we’re back from the storm, and the governor has been that voice,” Shannon Eis, a senior vice president with a branch of MWW, told the Asbury Park Press in a May report. “We put out this very huge concept that included having the governor’s office involved loud and clear.”

But in the initial March proposal, ahead of the April awarding of the bid, he is mentioned in only one section, in a biography of an MWW executive director, who was listed as one of dozens of “key personnel” in the proposal. Rich Levesque, the MWW employee, “developed strong relationships over the years with many of Governor Christie’s closest advisors as well as many of his cabinet appointees,” according to the document. New Jersey news reports noted Levesque’s hire before a deal was struck on the ad, but the firm has historically been more closely tied to Democrats — its president, Michael Kempner, is a major Democratic bundler.

Still, the ad campaign unfolded as the Republican governor pursued a re-election bid of his own, prompting some Democrats to raise questions about motivations. Pallone has referenced reports from the Asbury Park Press, which indicated that MWW charged about $2 million more than another final-round bidding company. But, according to figures provided by the company, MWW charged about $1.6 million more in labor costs, but overall proposed a cheaper ad campaign concept, spending less on the ad buy portion.

“The IG’s audit will also show that MWW’s final proposal came in at $22.255 million, while the runner-up’s proposal was $23.725 million,” the statement from MWW continued. “That means MWW came in at the lower overall bid by $1.47 million and offered the lowest hourly rates of all bidders.”

A spokesman for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority didn’t respond to a request for comment.

In response to questions Monday afternoon, Pallone spokesman Raymond Zaccaro responded, “The selection of a company that presented a higher bid for a comparable product raised questions with Congressman Pallone, which is why we’ve asked the inspector general to look at the matter.”